Statistics for Journalists

01 Nov 2013 Statistics Teaching

In November 2013 I had the opportunity to work with the Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) and produce a talk explaining numbers and statistics. The deal was that it was 11 concepts on numbers and stats in 20 minutes. The concepts being:

• General Number Hygiene
• Big and Little Numbers
• Surveys
• Averages
• Understanding Uncertainty
• P-Values
• Trends
• Correlation and Causation
• Rare Events
• Risk
• Infographics

This was my first time ever really seriously teaching anything to anyone. And I’ll admit, cramming 11 concepts into 20 minutes was a touch more work than I anticipated. It DID end up being a lot of fun, however. And I managed to learn a lot. So thanks, AusSMC!

This video is aimed at journalists to try and give them a bit more information on how to interpret the 11 topics mentioned earlier. It should help you. You should learn something. But everyone is different, so maybe it won’t. But I hope that it helps you on your journey through statistics. Please let me know if you have any questions. Seriously!

You can watch the presentation below:

EVENT FOR JOURNALISTS: Getting your head around numbers and stats from AusSMC on Vimeo.

Again - let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers,

Nick.